The Wine Curmudgeonhttp://winecurmudgeon.com
The Wine CurmudgeonFri, 31 Jul 2015 11:12:10 +0000en-UShourly1https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/3464432/logofeedburner.jpgThe Wine Curmudgeonhttp://winecurmudgeon.com
http://winecurmudgeon.com/update-sweet-red-wine-is-taking-over-the-u-s/Update: Sweet red wine is taking over the U.S.https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104257788/0/winecurmudgeon~Update-Sweet-red-wine-is-taking-over-the-US/
https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104257788/0/winecurmudgeon~Update-Sweet-red-wine-is-taking-over-the-US/#commentsFri, 31 Jul 2015 11:00:00 +0000http://winecurmudgeon.com/?p=7249The surprising thing about this month’s sweet red wine post is how muted the reaction was. Hardly anyone seemed surprised. Dismayed maybe, or irritated, but not especially surprised. That’s because the people who follow these things had an idea it was going on, and those who don’t — like most of the Winestream Media —

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The surprising thing about this month’s sweet red wine post is how muted the reaction was. Hardly anyone seemed surprised. Dismayed maybe, or irritated, but not especially surprised. That’s because the people who follow these things had an idea it was going on, and those who don’t — like most of the Winestream Media — don’t consider it important enough to be surprised.

And the wine drinkers buying all that sweet red? They weren’t surprised, dismayed, or irritated. They’re just happy someone is making wine they enjoy. Or, as a 30-something woman told me about her favorite sweet red, Cupcake’s Red Velvet: “It’s really good, and it’s really about the only red wine I like.”

The one thing most everyone agreed on? That the numbers, though imprecise, offered a real sense of how big sweet red has become — the fifth biggest category in U.S. wine sales, behind chardonnay, cabernet sauvignion, pinot noir, and merlot. Given its momentum, I wouldn’t be surprised to see sweet red pass merlot for fourth in the next couple of years.

So it’s not a coincidence that red blends accounted for 40 percent of all new wines over the past two years, compared to just 18 percent for chardonnay and cabernet combined, according to Beverage Media magazine. Yes, not all red blends are sweet, but sweet reds are at least two-thirds of red blends, based on data in the first post. This is another sign of how important sweet red has become.

How sweet is sweet? About 1.0 or 1.2 percent residual sugar, compared to less than .08 residual sugar for dry red wines. Other highlights in the wake of the first story, combined with additional reporting that I did:

• Consumers don’t necessarily see sweet red as sweet, says Christian Miller of Full Glass Research, who has probably studied this subject more than anyone in the country. ” ‘Sweet’ is not an attribute that large numbers of regular consumers use with regards to these wines,” he said. “They are more apt to regard them as flavorful or smooth or interesting. Many consumers jump back and forth between dryer and sweeter versions of these wines.”

• The wine industry remains uneasy about calling a sweet wine sweet, says Miller. “It’s possible that some of these companies have tested adding the word sweet to the label or description, and found it harmful. On the other hand, based on my experience in the wine industry, the number of decisions based on gut instinct, trade notions, or small unrepresentative samples is surprisingly high, even among large MBA-ish companies.”

• Since sweet red doesn’t depend on appellation or specific grapes, it can be made with fruit from anywhere in California, Or, as wine economist and author Mike Vesteth told me, sweet red can be made with all the merlot and syrah that wouldn’t be sold otherwise, and which costs less to use. Hence higher profit margins than more traditional wines.

Finally, no one — not even anyone at E&J Gallo, whose Apothic started all of this — expected sweet red to do this well. Gallo, I have been told, developed Apothic to appeal to Millennials, to compete with the Menage a Trois red, and to earn supermarket shelf space. That it might change U.S. wine never really occurred to anyone.

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https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104257788/0/winecurmudgeon~Update-Sweet-red-wine-is-taking-over-the-US/feed/1http://winecurmudgeon.com/great-quotes-in-wine-history-david-banner/Great quotes in wine history: David Bannerhttps://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104066092/0/winecurmudgeon~Great-quotes-in-wine-history-David-Banner/
https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104066092/0/winecurmudgeon~Great-quotes-in-wine-history-David-Banner/#commentsThu, 30 Jul 2015 11:00:19 +0000http://winecurmudgeon.com/?p=7212David Banner, explaining what will happen if he is forced to buy overpriced 92-point wine with too much oak and high alcohol. Of course, the fellow in the tie from the Winestream Media doesn’t believe him, and we know what happens next. A tip o’ the Wine Curmudgeon’s fedora to the Dedoimedo website; this post

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David Banner, explaining what will happen if he is forced to buy overpriced 92-point wine with too much oak and high alcohol. Of course, the fellow in the tie from the Winestream Media doesn’t believe him, and we know what happens next.

A tip o’ the Wine Curmudgeon’s fedora to the Dedoimedo website; this post is based on his “My reaction to — ” series. The video is courtesy of Ant Man via YouTube.

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https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/104066092/0/winecurmudgeon~Great-quotes-in-wine-history-David-Banner/feed/0http://winecurmudgeon.com/wine-of-the-week-bonny-doon-vin-gris-de-cigare-2014/Wine of the week: Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare 2014https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103883694/0/winecurmudgeon~Wine-of-the-week-Bonny-Doon-Vin-Gris-de-Cigare/
https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103883694/0/winecurmudgeon~Wine-of-the-week-Bonny-Doon-Vin-Gris-de-Cigare/#commentsWed, 29 Jul 2015 11:00:00 +0000http://winecurmudgeon.com/?p=7165Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm is perhaps the most subversive person in the wine business, and one sip of his rose, the Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare, shows why. On the one hand, it has all of the necessary qualities for a terrific pink wine — freshness, nary a hint of residual sugar, and a

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Bonny Doon’s Randall Grahm is perhaps the most subversive person in the wine business, and one sip of his rose, the Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare, shows why. On the one hand, it has all of the necessary qualities for a terrific pink wine — freshness, nary a hint of residual sugar, and a certain stoniness that many of the great French roses from Provence have.

On the other hand, the Vin Gris de Cigare ($15, sample, 13%) also tastes like it will age for at least a couple of years. What cranberry fruit there is is hidden beneath the other components, and the fruit should slowly show itself over time. This is not supposed to happen with rose, which is usually made to last for just one vintage (and is perfectly fine when it does). That Grahm makes a rose that will age, and for only $15, is just another example of how sneaky he is, and how his wines almost never do what the wine business says wine should do.

Hence it’s no surprise that I enjoy them so much. Highly recommended; serve the Vin Gris de Cigare chilled, either on its own or with any summer food, be it salad or grilled fish, chicken, or beef. I drank it with socca, the chickpea flour pancake from southern France on a hot Dallas Saturday afternoon. If I wasn’t magically transported somewhere other than my air conditioned living room, the combination reminded me why pairings can work as long as we aren’t slaves to them.

Finally, a note about Grahm’s newest — and perhaps most subversive — project. He is crowdfunding a vineyard to create 10,000 new grape varieties, in the hope of finding a unique New World vinifera, something that didn’t come from Europe and so is better suited to our climate and soil. In this, Grahm figures he has a chance to explore New World terroir in a way no one ever has. That creating new grape varieties is incredibly difficult does not seem to daunt him in the least.

The project is about 15 percent of the way to its $350,000 goal — you can contribute here, and there are some impressive premiums. And, given my experience with crowdfunding, Grahm will have more fun than he can imagine. Not that I know anything about waking up at 2 a.m. to check the funding percentage.

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https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103883694/0/winecurmudgeon~Wine-of-the-week-Bonny-Doon-Vin-Gris-de-Cigare/feed/0http://winecurmudgeon.com/winebits-396-investing-in-wine-scottish-wine-bill-st-john/Winebits 396: Investing in wine, Scottish wine, Bill St. Johnhttps://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103694438/0/winecurmudgeon~Winebits-Investing-in-wine-Scottish-wine-Bill-St-John/
https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103694438/0/winecurmudgeon~Winebits-Investing-in-wine-Scottish-wine-Bill-St-John/#commentsTue, 28 Jul 2015 11:00:00 +0000http://winecurmudgeon.com/?p=7242• Tulips, anyone? The Wine Curmudgeon rarely passes up an opportunity to quote F. Scott Fitzgerald on one of his (and my) favorite subjects: “You know, the rich are different from you and me.” How else to explain this story about investing in wine from the New York Times? It talks about how the wealthy

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• Tulips, anyone? The Wine Curmudgeon rarely passes up an opportunity to quote F. Scott Fitzgerald on one of his (and my) favorite subjects: “You know, the rich are different from you and me.” How else to explain this story about investing in wine from the New York Times? It talks about how the wealthy borrow money against their wine collections the way the rest of us do against our homes (assuming, of course, we even own one). Says the founder of one such lender: “Whether it’s real estate or wine, it doesn’t make sense to accumulate assets with pure cash. With wine, you can borrow and not put your home or some other important asset at risk. You can finance toys with toys.” And the tulip reference? The Dutch 17th century economic crash brought on by flower speculating — not that I’m making comparisons.

• Not this vintage: Remember the Monty Python bit about the Scotsman who has to defend Wimbledon’s honor? It came to mind when I read this piece about what is apparently the first vintage ever of Scottish wine — admirable and a good try, but “undrinkable.” The wine, a white made with cold-hardy grapes, is apparently oxidized, a not uncommon problem for inexperienced regional winemakers working with odd grapes in untested climates. Still, if we can do it in Texas, there is hope.

• One of the best: I only met Bill St. John a couple of times, but I read him regularly and appreciated his skill as a wine writer. Bill was someone who cared about quality and value, and he wrote for his readers in clear and concise language. He has retired from the Chicago Tribune, and his final column says it all: “By and large, we take wine and especially winemaking way too seriously. We’ve made of winemakers what we’ve made of chefs — superstars and entertainers. … We’ve let winemaking and so much folderol about wine — buying, storing, collecting and bloviating — get in the way of our wine.” Bill will be much missed.

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https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103694438/0/winecurmudgeon~Winebits-Investing-in-wine-Scottish-wine-Bill-St-John/feed/0http://winecurmudgeon.com/helping-the-daily-meal-understand-local-and-best-u-s-wineries-doesnt-understand-local/Helping The Daily Meal understand local and the best U.S. winerieshttps://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103545506/0/winecurmudgeon~Helping-The-Daily-Meal-understand-local-and-the-best-US-wineries/
https://feeds.feedblitz.com/~/103545506/0/winecurmudgeon~Helping-The-Daily-Meal-understand-local-and-the-best-US-wineries/#commentsMon, 27 Jul 2015 11:00:48 +0000http://winecurmudgeon.com/?p=7229How do we know that regional wine is firmly part of the wine mainstream? When a hip and with it on-line magazine, edited by Colman Andrews — one of the most influential people in the food world — lists the 101 best U.S. wineries and 13 are from The Other 47. And, even more impressively,

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How do we know that regional wine is firmly part of the wine mainstream? When a hip and with it on-line magazine, edited by Colman Andrews — one of the most influential people in the food world — lists the 101 best U.S. wineries and 13 are from The Other 47. And, even more impressively, the editors knew so much about drinking local that they don’t even need to ask the most qualified regional wine experts in the country for their input.

Call it just another day at the office for the Winestream Media.

Do not take this as poor mouthing on my part. I’m more grateful than I can write that our work with Drink Local Wine made a difference, whether it’s Eric Asimov’s endorsement of New York wine or Food & Wine’s Ray Isle, who is as open minded about regional wine as he is about cheap wine. And when local gets the kind of play it did from something as high profile and as 21st century as The Daly Meal, I know how far we’ve come.

Or think that I need to rant about the regional wineries on the list. Like all such efforts, it’s perfectly imperfect. Yes, it’s missing a couple of Texas producers, including Brennan and Pedernales, who should be there, and that no one from Missouri made it speaks to the list’s shortcomings. (Full disclosure: One of the Texas producers in the top 101 is owned by someone who criticizes me regularly for my lack of wine knowledge, and has done it in a comment on the blog, and one of the writers who helped pick the list recently told a Texas winery official that the next time I got my facts right about Texas wine, it would be the first time I did so.)

Rather, it’s the frustration that once the Winestream Media gets hold of something, there’s only one way of doing things, and that’s its way. In the end, that becomes self-defeating, as anyone who has ever read the Wine Spectator knows. “Scores are good because they are, and everyone we know agrees with me. So how dare you question us? Because we don’t know you and we don’t want to know you.”

Hence the need to consult people who understand what’s going on with regional wine from a national perspective, which is mostly lacking with the people who helped pick this list.

That no one asked for my opinion is one thing. I’m in the middle of the country, and, as several of my pals have pointed out more than once, my location and my inability to play nicely with the other children works against me when important people on either coast need experting. But that isn’t the case with Doug Frost, MS, MW, and maybe the smartest regional wine person in the world. No one called Doug, and that’s like writing about baseball and not understanding that the game is nine innings long. And how about Linda Murphy, who wrote the book about the subject? Or Dave McIntyre of the Washington Post, who co-founded DLW and is the country’s leading authority on Virginia wine. Or Andrew Stover, who owns a distributor that imports regional wine to the East Coast and has probably more wine from the Other 47 as anyone in the world.

I emailed Andrews at the Daily Meal to ask him about this, but never heard back. Hopefully, he and I can talk soon, and I’ll update the post. Until then, check the list out, look for wineries in your area, and give them a try. Drinking local is what matters, a lesson I hope the Daily Meal keeps in mind when it does the list next year.